Fugue Melody

I just finished a week of using Bach's "Little Fugue in G minor" as a listening/journal activity for my 3rd - 6th grade classes (total of 12 classes). After the classes copied the information (i.e., title, composer, and definition of fugue) from the board, we talked about the idea of a subject. I wrote a sentence on the board, and the students found its grammatical subject. Then I compared it to the concept of a musical subject. I played the first 16 seconds of the fugue from the recording, then played it on the piano, and then played it on the recorder. Then we sang it on "doo." Many of my students could listen to the whole fugue and count how many times they heard the fugue subject. I was so proud! Some of my 3rd graders did as well as the 6th graders!